"Not tonight, honey, I've got a headache" may have
lost some of its force as an argument for no sex following a study by
neurologists at the University of Muenster in western Germany.
Writing in Cephalalgia, the official journal of the UK-based
International Headache Society, the scientists, led by Anke Hambach,
said their study showed that sexual activity - with or without a
partner - could relieve pain in some headache patients.
The majority of migraine or cluster headache patients surveyed in
the study said they had no sex during headache attacks. Among the
migraine patients who said they did have experience with sexual
activity during an attack, 60 per cent reported an improvement and 33
per cent a worsening.
Among cluster headache patients, just 37 per cent reported eased
symptoms after sex, while half felt worse. Men experienced more pain
relief from sex than women did.
The study's authors cautioned against attaching too much
significance to the results, noting that the some 350 people surveyed
suffered from particularly severe headaches. And a university
spokesperson added that questionnaires on "below-the-belt" topics
were often answered less than honestly.
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